Selected publications

Das U, Wang L, Ganguly A, Saikia JM, Wagner SL, Koo EH, Roy S (2015). Visualizing APP and BACE-1 approximation in neurons yields insight into the amyloidogenic pathway. Nat Neurosci. 2015 Dec 7 issue

Ganguly A, Tang Y, Wang L, Ladt K, Loi J, Dargent D, Leterrier C, and Roy S (2015). A dynamic formin-dependent deep F-actin network in axons. Journal of Cell Biology, July 27 issue; 210(3).

Wang L, Das U, Scott D, Tang Y, McLean P and Roy S (2014). Alpha-Synuclein Multimers Cluster Synaptic Vesicles and attenuate Recycling. Current Biology, 2014 Sep 24. (14)01040-9.

Tang Y, Scott D, Das U, Gitler D, Ganguly S, and Roy S (2013). Fast vesicle transport is required for the slow axonal transport of synapsin.
Journal of Neuroscience, 33(39):15362-15375.    

Das U, Scott D, Koo EH, Tang Y and Roy S. (2013) Activity-induced convergence of APP and BACE-1 in acidic microdomains via an endocytosis-dependent pathway.
Neuron, Aug. 7 issue. 

Scott D and Roy S. (2012) Alpha-synuclein inhibits inter-synaptic vesicle mobility and maintains recycling pool  homeostasis.
Journal of Neuroscience, July 25; 32(30):10129-35.
    
Roy S, Yang Ge, Tang Y and Scott D. (2011). A simple photo-activation and image-analysis module for visualizing and analyzing axonal transport with high temporal resolution.
Nature Protocols; 7:62-8.   
 
Scott D, Das U, Tang Y and Roy S. (2011) Mechanistic logic underlying the axonal transport of cytosolic proteins.
Neuron. 70(3):441-54.    
   
Scott D, Tabarean I, Tang Y, Cartier A, Masliah E, Roy S. (2010) A pathologic cascade leading to synaptic dysfunction in α-synuclein-induced neuro-degeneration
Journal of Neuroscience 16;30(24):8083-95.        

Tang Y, Scott D, Das U, Edland S, Radomski K, Koo E and Roy
S. (2012) Early and selective impairments in axonal transport kinetics of synaptic cargoes induced by soluble amyloid-beta protein oligomers.
Traffic, 13(5):681-93.

Research Interests

"The science of living things is the science of movement and transformation" - Leonardo DaVinci. 

​We are generally interested in neuronal trafficking - how things move around in neurons. Along this overall theme, there are two overall focus areas:

1. Cell Biology of Neuronal trafficking/transport: Due to their complex geometry and finite sites of bulk protein synthesis (perikarya), neurons have evolved elaborate transport and trafficking machinery to deliver proteins into axons and dendrites. How are somatically-synthesized proteins delivered to their appropriate sites, and then retained there (for example at the synaptic terminal)? Knowledge into the biology of this process is critical to our understanding of neuronal form and function.

2. Cell Biology of Neurodegeneration: There is general consensus that that amyloid-beta and tau are key proteins involved in Alzheimer's disease, and that alpha-synuclein is intimately involved in Parkinson's disease (whether they are pathogenic or not). Yet, a major gap in our understanding relates to the precise pathways by which these proteins induce neuronal dysfunction - particularly initiating mechanisms, and how/where the various pathologic proteins operate in a given pathologic cascade. We believe that these questions can be answered by high-fidelity cellular models that accurately capture key pathologic features of these diseases - for example synaptic dysfunction. Below is a generic description of some of the current projects.